From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phonological system
An example of a male second-language speaker showcasing South African slang and regionalisms.
This article covers the
phonological
system of
South African English
(
SAE
) as spoken primarily by
White South Africans
. While there is some variation among speakers, SAE typically has a number of features in common with
English as it is spoken in southern England
(in places like London), such as
non-rhoticity
and the
TRAP
–
BATH
split
.
The two main phonological features that mark South African English as distinct are the behaviour of the vowels in
KIT
and
PALM
. The
KIT
vowel tends to be "split" so that there is a clear
allophonic
variation between the front
[?]
and central
[??]
or
[?]
. The
PALM
vowel is characteristically back in the General and Broad varieties of SAE. The tendency to
monophthongise
/??/
and
/a?/
to
[?ː]
and
[aː]
respectively, are also typical features of General and Broad White South African English.
General South African English features phonemic vowel length (so that
ferry
/?feriː/
and
fairy
/?feːriː/
as well as
cot
/k?t/
and
cart
/k?ːt/
differ only in length) as well as phonemic roundedness, so that
fairy
/?feːriː/
is distinguished from
furry
/?føːriː/
by
roundedness
.
Features involving consonants include the tendency for
/tj/
(as in
tune
) and
/dj/
(as in
dune
) to be realised as
[t?]
and
[d?]
, respectively (see
Yod coalescence
), and
/h/
has a strong tendency to be voiced initially.
Vowels
[
edit
]
The vocalic phonemes of South African English are as follows:
- The original short front vowels
TRAP
,
DRESS
and
KIT
underwent a vowel shift similar to that found in
New Zealand English
, though not as extreme:
- The
TRAP
vowel
/?/
varies from
[
æ
]
to
[
?
]
in General and Cultivated SAE. However, the new prestige value in younger
Johannesburg
speakers of the General variety (particularly those who live in the wealthy northern
suburbs
) seems to be open front
[
a
]
, the same as in Modern RP. Before
[
?
]
, the fully open
[
a
]
is the norm in the General variety, whereas before voiced stops as well as bilabial and alveolar nasals the vowel tends to be centralised and lengthened to
[
æ?ː
]
, often with slight diphthongisation (
[æ?ː?]
). Broad
/?/
can be as close as mid
[
??
]
, encroaching on the Cultivated realisation of
DRESS
.
- DRESS
/e/
is close-mid
[
e
]
or higher
[
e?
]
in General, often with centralisation
[
e
~
?
]
(it is unclear whether the last allophone is distinct from the front allophone of
KIT
in the General variety). Variants above the close-mid height are typical of female speech. General
/e/
is similar enough to
/?/
in RP and similar accents as to cause perceptual problems for outsiders. Broad variants are very similar to the General ones, but in Cultivated the vowel can be as open as
[
e?
]
(within the RP norm). In General and Broad, the vowel can be lowered to
[
?
]
or even
[
æ
]
when it occurs before
[
?
]
.
- As indicated in the transcription, the
KIT
vowel
/?/
has a schwa-like quality even in stressed positions, except when in contact with velars and palatals, after
/h/
as well as in the word-initial position, where the conservative
[
?
]
quality (further fronted to
[
i
]
in Broad) is retained. Due to
weak vowel merger
, neither
Lenin
and
Lennon
nor
except
and
accept
are distinct in SAE:
/?len?n,
?k?sept/
. The quality of the merged vowel is typically
[
??
]
(
[
?
]
in some Broad varieties), even in unstressed closed syllables. This means that all three vowels of
limited
/?l?m?t?d/
are phonetically the same:
[?l??m??t??d
~
?l?m?t?d]
. These variants are covered by the symbol
⟨
?
⟩
(without the lowering diacritic) in phonetic transcription. In the word-final position, the vowel is mid
[
?
]
in all varieties, with some lowering to
[
?
]
or even
[
a
]
being possible in the Cultivated variety. These allophones are written with
⟨
?
⟩
in phonetic transcription, and the same symbol is used for word-initial and postvocalic instances of word-internal
KIT
(
[?k?sept]
, etc.). As far as the phonemic analysis is concerned, the stressed central
KIT
has been variously analysed as an allophone of
KIT
, an allophone of
COMMA
(making it a stressable vowel), an allophone of a merged
KIT
/
COMMA
vowel (which is the analysis adopted in this article) or a phoneme of its own that is separate from both
COMMA
and the front variety of
KIT
.
- In the Cultivated variety,
Lenin
/?len?n/
and
except
/?k?sept/
on the one hand and
Lennon
/?len?n/
and
accept
/?k?sept/
on the other may be distinct, as in RP. In addition, stressed instances of
KIT
are consistently front
[
?
]
(as in RP), without any centralisation, whereas the schwa is consistently mid, so that the unstressed vowels of
Lenin
and
Lennon
contrast not only by backness but also by height:
[?len?n,
?len?n]
. The
[
?
]
quality occurs also in
happy
/?h?p?/
and
immediately
/??miːd??tl?/
(cf. General
/?h?piː,
??miːdiː?tliː/
).
For this reason, this variety is analysed as containing an extra
/?/
phoneme.
- The
FLEECE
vowel
/iː/
is a long close front monophthong
[
iː
]
, either close to cardinal
[
iː
]
or slightly mid-centralised. It does not have a tendency to diphthongise, which distinguishes SAE from Australian and New Zealand English.
- The
FOOT
vowel
/?/
is typically a weakly rounded retracted central vowel
[
??
]
, somewhat more central than the traditional RP value. Younger speakers of the General variety (especially females) often use a fully central
[
?
]
. This vowel is effectively the rounded counterpart of
KIT
. Backer and sometimes more rounded variants (
[
?
~
??
]
) occur before
[
?
]
. Broad SAE can feature a more rounded vowel, but that is more common in Afrikaans English.
- The
GOOSE
vowel
/?ː/
is usually central
[
?ː
]
or somewhat fronter in White varieties, though in the Cultivated variety, it is closer to
[
uː
]
(typically not fully back, thus
[
u?ː
]
), which is also the normal realisation before
[
?
]
in other varieties. Younger (particularly female) speakers of the General variety use an even more front vowel
[
yː
]
, so that
food
[fyːd]
may be distinguished from
feed
[fiːd]
only by rounding. The vowel is often a monophthong, but there is some tendency to diphthongise it before sonorants (as in
wounded
[?w?und?d]
and
school
[sk?u?]
).
- In the General variety,
PRICE
/a?/
,
MOUTH
/??/
and
GOAT
/œ?/
are commonly monophthongized to
[
aː
]
,
[
??ː
]
(phonetically between
BATH
and a monophthongal
PRICE
) and
[
œː
]
. Among those, the monophthongal variant of
PRICE
is the most common. The last monophthong contrasts with the close-mid
[
øː
]
, which stands for
NURSE
. The monophthonging of
GOAT
can cause intelligibility problems for outsiders; Roger Lass says that he himself once misunderstood the phrase
the total onslaught
[ð?
?tœːtl?
??nsloːt]
for
the turtle onslaught
[ð?
?tøːtl?
??nsloːt]
. On the other hand,
CHOICE
does not monophthongize. In addition,
/e?/
is almost monophthongal
[ee?]
, resulting in a near-merger of
FACE
with
SQUARE
, which is normally a close-mid monophthong
[
eː
]
.
Transcriptions
[
edit
]
Sources differ in the way they transcribe South African English. The differences are listed below. The traditional phonemic orthography for the Received Pronunciation as well as the reformed phonemic orthographies for Australian and New Zealand English have been added for the sake of comparison.
Transcription systems
South African English
|
|
Australian
|
New Zealand
|
RP
|
|
Example words
|
This article
|
Wells 1982
|
Lass 1984
|
Lass 1990
|
Branford 1994
|
Rogers 2014
|
iː
|
iː
|
iː
|
iː
|
?
|
i
|
iː
|
iː
|
iː
|
fl
ee
ce
|
i
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
i
|
happ
y
, vid
e
o
|
?
|
?
|
?
/
?
/
?
|
??
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
k
i
t
|
?
|
??
/
?
|
?
|
b
i
t
|
?
/
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
rabb
i
t
|
?
|
a
ccept, abb
o
t
|
a
|
sof
a
, bett
er
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
??
|
?
/
??
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
f
oo
t
|
?ː
|
uː
|
?ː
|
?ː
|
?
|
u
|
?ː
|
?ː
|
uː
|
g
oo
se
|
e
|
e
|
e
|
e
|
?
/
e
|
e
|
e
|
e
|
e
|
dr
e
ss
|
eː
|
e?
|
?
|
eː
|
?
|
eː
|
eː
|
e?
|
e?
|
squ
are
|
øː
|
?ː
|
?
|
ø?ː
|
?
|
?
|
?ː
|
øː
|
?ː
|
n
ur
se
|
oː
|
?ː
|
oː
|
oː
|
?ː
|
?
|
oː
|
oː
|
?ː
|
th
ough
t, n
or
th
|
?
|
æ
|
?
|
æ?
|
æ
/
?
|
?
|
æ
|
?
|
æ
|
tr
a
p
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
/
?
|
?
|
?
|
a
|
a
|
?
|
str
u
t,
u
nknown
|
a
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
a
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
p
a
p
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
???
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
l
o
t
|
?ː
|
?ː
|
?ː
/
?ː
|
??ː
|
?
|
?
|
aː
|
aː
|
?ː
|
p
al
m, st
ar
t
|
e?
|
??
|
?
|
e?
|
?
|
?j
|
æ?
|
æ?
|
e?
|
f
a
ce
|
a?
|
a?
|
?ː
|
a?
/
aː
|
a?
|
aː
|
??
|
a?
|
a?
|
pr
i
ce
|
??
|
??
|
?
|
??
|
?
|
?j
|
o?
|
o?
|
??
|
ch
oi
ce
|
œ?
|
??
|
?
|
œ???
|
?
|
?w
/
?ː
|
??
|
a?
|
??
|
g
oa
t
|
??
|
a?
|
??ː
|
???
|
?
|
?w
|
æ?
|
æ?
|
a?
|
m
ou
th
|
i?
|
??
|
?
|
??
|
?
|
i?
|
??
|
i?
|
??
|
n
ear
|
??
|
??
|
?
|
???
|
?
|
??
|
?ː?
|
??
|
??
|
c
ure
|
?
|
?
|
?ː
|
f
u
ry
|
?
|
?
|
oː
|
s
ure
|
Consonants
[
edit
]
Plosives
[
edit
]
- In Broad White South African English, voiceless plosives tend to be
unaspirated
in all positions, which serves as a marker of this subvariety. This is usually thought to be an Afrikaans influence.
- General and Cultivated varieties aspirate
/p,
t,
k/
before a stressed syllable, unless they are followed by an
/s/
within the same syllable.
- Speakers of the General variety can strongly affricate the syllable-final
/t/
to
[
ts
]
, so that
wanting
/?w?nt?ŋ/
can be pronounced
[?w?nts?ŋ]
.
- /t,
d/
are normally
alveolar
. In the Broad variety, they tend to be dental
[
t?
,
d?
]
. This pronunciation also occurs in older speakers of the Jewish subvariety of General SAE.
Fricatives and affricates
[
edit
]
- /x/
occurs only in words borrowed from Afrikaans and Khoisan languages, such as
gogga
/?xoxa/
'insect'. Many speakers realise
/x/
as uvular
[
χ
]
, a sound which is more common in Afrikaans.
- /θ/
may be realised as
[
f
]
in Broad varieties (see
Th
-fronting
), but it is more accurate to say that it is a feature of Afrikaans English. This is especially common word-finally (as in
myth
[m?f]
).
- In the Indian variety, the labiodental fricatives
/f,
v/
are realised without audible friction, i.e. as approximants
[
??
,
?
]
.
- In General and Cultivated varieties, intervocalic
/h/
may be
voiced
, so that
ahead
can be pronounced
[???ed]
.
- There is not a full agreement about the voicing of
/h/
in Broad varieties:
- Lass (2002)
states that:
- Voiced
[
?
]
is the normal realisation of
/h/
in Broad varieties.
- It is often deleted, e.g. in word-initial stressed syllables (as in
h
ouse
), but at least as often, it is pronounced even if it seems deleted. The vowel that follows the
[?]
allophone in the word-initial syllable often carries a low or low rising tone, which, in rapid speech, can be the only trace of the deleted
/h/
. That creates potentially minimal tonal pairs like
oh
(neutral
[???]
or high falling
[?????]
, phonemically
/œ?/
) vs.
hoe
(low
[???]
or low rising
[????]
, phonemically
/hœ?/
). In General, these are normally pronounced
[œː]
and
[hœː]
, without any tonal difference.
- Bowerman (2004)
states that in Broad varieties close to Afrikaans English,
/h/
is voiced
[
?
]
before a stressed vowel.
Sonorants
[
edit
]
- General and Broad varieties have a
wine?whine merger
. However, some speakers of Cultivated SAE (particularly the elderly) still distinguish
/hw/
from
/w/
, so that
which
/hw?t?/
is not homophonous with
witch
/w?t?/
.
- /l/
has two allophones:
- Clear (neutral or somewhat
palatalised
)
[
l
]
in syllable-initial and intervocalic positions (as in
look
[l?k]
and
polar
[?pœːl?]
).
- In Cultivated variety, clear
[
l
]
is often also used word-finally when another word begins with a vowel (as in
call up
[koːl
?p]
, which in General and Broad is pronounced
[koː?
?p]
).
- Velarised
[
l?
]
(or
uvularised
[
l?
]
) in pre-consonantal and word-final positions.
- One source states that the dark
/l/
has a "hollow
pharyngealised
" quality
[l?]
,
rather than velarised or uvularised.
- In the Broad variety, the sequences
/?n/
and
/?l/
tend not to form syllabic
[n?]
and
[l?]
, so that
button
/?b?t?n/
and
middle
/?m?d?l/
are phonetically
[?b?t?n]
and
[?m?d?l]
(compare General
[?b?tn?]
and
[?m?dl?]
). John Wells analyses the broad pronunciation of these words as having a secondarily stressed schwa in the last syllable:
/?b?t??n/
,
/?m?d??l/
.
- In Cultivated and General varieties,
/r/
is an approximant, usually
postalveolar
or (less commonly)
retroflex
. In emphatic speech, Cultivated speakers may realise
/r/
as a (often long) trill
[
r
]
. Older speakers of the Cultivated variety may realise intervocalic
/r/
as a tap
[
?
]
(as in
very
[?ve??]
), a feature which is becoming increasingly rare.
- Broad SAE realises
/r/
as a
tap
[
?
]
, sometimes even as a trill
[
r
]
- a pronunciation which is at times stigmatised as a marker of this variety. The trill
[
r
]
is more commonly considered a feature of the
second language
Afrikaans English variety.
- Another possible realisation of
/r/
is uvular trill
[
?
]
, which has been reported to occur in the
Cape Flats dialect
.
- South African English is
non-rhotic
, except for some Broad varieties spoken in the
Cape Province
(typically in -
er
suffixes, as in
writ
er
[?ra?t?]
). It appears that postvocalic
/r/
is entering the speech of younger people under the influence of
American English
.
- Linking
/r/
(as in
fo
r
a while
/foː
?
?wa?l/
) is used only by some speakers:
[foː?
?
?waːl]
.
- There is not a full agreement about
intrusive
/r/
(as in
law and order
) in South African English:
- Lass (2002)
states that it is rare, and some speakers with linking
/r/
never use the intrusive
/r/
.
- Bowerman (2004)
states that it is absent from this variety.
- In contexts where many British and Australian accents use the intrusive
/r/
, speakers of South African English who do not use the intrusive
/r/
create an intervocalic hiatus. In these varieties, phrases such as
law and order
/?loː
?n
?oːd?/
can be subject to the following processes:
- Vowel deletion:
[?loːn
?oːd?]
;
- Adding a
semivowel
corresponding to the preceding vowel:
[?loːw?n
?oːd?]
;
- Inserting a
glottal stop
:
[?loː??n
?oːd?]
. This is typical of Broad varieties.
- Before a high front vowel,
/j/
undergoes
fortition
to
[
?
]
in Broad and some of the General varieties, so that
yeast
can be pronounced
[?iːst]
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Bekker, Ian (2008).
The vowels of South African English
(PDF)
(Ph.D.). north-West University, Potchefstroom.
- Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.),
A handbook of varieties of English
, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931?942,
ISBN
3-11-017532-0
- Branford, William (1994). "9: English in South Africa". In Burchfield, Robert (ed.).
The Cambridge History of the English Language
. Vol. 5: English in Britain and Overseas: Origins and Development. Cambridge University Press. pp. 430?496.
ISBN
0-521-26478-2
.
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2013) [First published 2003],
Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students
(3rd ed.), Routledge,
ISBN
978-0-415-50650-2
- Finn, Peter (2004), "Cape Flats English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.),
A handbook of varieties of English
, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 964?984,
ISBN
3-11-017532-0
- Lass, Roger (1984), "Vowel System Universals and Typology: Prologue to Theory",
Phonology Yearbook
,
1
,
Cambridge University Press
: 75?111,
doi
:
10.1017/S0952675700000300
,
JSTOR
4615383
- — (1990), "A 'standard' South African vowel system", in Ramsaran, Susan (ed.),
Studies in the Pronunciation of English: A Commemorative Volume in Honour of A.C. Gimson
, Routledge, pp. 272?285,
ISBN
978-0-41507180-2
- — (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.),
Language in South Africa
, Cambridge University Press,
ISBN
9780521791052
- Mesthrie, Rajend (2004), "Indian South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.),
A handbook of varieties of English
, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 953?963,
ISBN
3-11-017532-0
- Rogers, Henry (2014) [First published 2000],
The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics
, Essex: Routledge,
ISBN
978-0-582-38182-7
- Wells, John C.
(1982).
Accents of English
. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i?xx, 467?674). Cambridge University Press.
doi
:
10.1017/CBO9780511611766
.
ISBN
0-52128541-0
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
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Europe
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